Computed tomography (CT) is a medical imaging method. Images from CT scans are generally prepared by combining slices of two-dimensional X-rays to generate a three-dimensional image of a volume. Dual energy CT scanning is performed by scanning a patient at two different energy levels in a sequential or interleaved fashion over the same volume. The two different resulting x-ray spectra used for the scans provides information about the x-ray linear attenuation of the materials contained within the scanned volume.
Such dual energy scans may be used for material segmentation, or to attempt to identify materials in the scanned volume. Currently known techniques for such segmentation, however, do not fully utilize the information potentially available from dual energy scanning. Moreover, such techniques do not include the ability to select arbitrary energy levels at which to identify attenuation levels. Further, such techniques may lack distinctness and/or accuracy in their segmentation of materials because, for example, they are based off a polychromatic spectrum, and include the combined effects of all energies in that spectrum.